Conferences

Graduation 2015!

Graduation 2015!

It’s that time of the year! Congratulations to our graduates! They’ve worked hard and it’s time to celebrate! Please join us as we honor the Class of 2015. You can join us in person or virtually. Attending the Ontario Genealogical Society conference in Barrie, Ontario? Join us there as we conduct the graduation ceremony live. Or, join us online at  4:30 PM EDT on Friday, May 29th to celebrate the achievements of your fellow students . Everyone is welcome. Time zones: Friday, May 29th – 4:30 PM Eastern; 3:30 PM Central; 1:30 PM Pacific; 9:30 PM in London, England; Saturday, May 30th – 6:30 AM in Sydney, Australia MEETING LOCATION: http://genealogicalstudies.adobeconnect.com/graduation/ (NOTE: No user name or password required. Please type in your first and last name; then click “Enter as a Guest”.) Show your support for the graduates of 2015! See you there!

Ulster Historical Foundation Lecture Tour, 2015:  Yakima, Washington

By Deborah Dale, student Whether or not three brothers on my paternal side really did make the journey from Ulster to Maryland during the seventeenth century is beside the point. The point is that I recently traveled to Yakima, Washington to attend several fantastic lectures hosted by the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society and presented by Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt of the Ulster Historical Foundation, who were winding down their 2015 genealogy lecture tour. I arrived just in time for the introductions of the speakers and the first lecture. After giving my name at the registration area, I picked up my conference packet, which included pages and pages in a spiral-bound book created by PRONI (the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland), which began with a section on How to Trace Your Family Tree and continued with sections on the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses, census substitutes, wills and probate, church records, valuation records, national education records, and much more. The room was full with only a few seats still open. I sat down at a table at the back of the room as Fintan Mullan started speaking, and as I noticed various flyers of family history resources lying on the table, which apparently complemented my conference packet and included a nice heritage map of the Ulster Plantation, large enough to hang on a wall. Also included was a flyer from the Irish Manuscripts Commission, a public body established in 1928 that promotes access to sources of Irish history and culture.…

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My Time at FGS2015

By Lynn Funk, Student Salt Lake City, Utah is considered by many to be the “Mecca for Genealogical Research” and it was never more so than this February 11-14 when the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) combined their conference with the annual RootsTech Conference. Over 22,000 people crowded into the Salt Palace to learn, share and enjoy speakers, workshops and exhibits about their shared passion—family history! My conference experience opened Wednesday night with a social featuring sandwiches and desserts and a panel discussion about Family History and Television. Participants included FGS president and Genealogy Roadshow host Joshua Taylor; Genealogy Roadshow host, genealogist and lawyer, Kenyatta Berry; George Ott from ProGenealogists; genetic genealogist CeCe Moore and Jennifer Utley from “Who Do You Think You Are?”  The panel discussed the impact shows such as Genealogy Roadshow, Finding Your Roots and Who Do You Think You Are?  have had on the growing interest in family history and genealogy. The next three days I attended sessions presented by both FGS and Rootstech, however most were FGS classes as they seemed to focus more on research methodology. In these classes I learned about cluster genealogy, resources for tracing U.S. ancestors between 1780-1840, using tax records to solve genealogical problems, and finding ancestors in between the censuses. One of my favorite classes was taught by Michael Lacopo and was entitled: She Came From Nowhere: A Case Study Approach to Solving a Difficult Genealogical Problem. Since I have several “difficult genealogical problems,” I found this class very helpful. It was fun to see how, step by step, he took down…

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RootsTech 2015 Recap

By Lynn Funk, Student I always look forward to February. You may be asking yourself “why February?” Well, the holidays are over, the promise of spring is in the air and, at least here in Salt Lake City, it means the opening of the annual RootsTech Conference. This year’s conference was held February 11-14 and was combined with the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference which made it an even bigger and better conference than ever for family history enthusiasts. This was my third year attending the conference and as always it was an enjoyable experience. The theme this year was Celebrating Families Across Generations. Keynote speakers included Dennis Brimhall CEO of FamilySearch International; Mike Mallin, CPO MyHeritage; Tan Le, found of Emotiv; former First Lady, Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna Bush Hager; D. Joshua Taylor, Director of Family History at FindMyPast;  author A. J. Jacobs, and singer/entertainer Donny Osmond. All had fascinating stories to tell about their ancestors and what family and family history means to them. You can watch many of these addresses as well as some of the workshop presentations online at rootstech.org/video. RootsTech has something for everyone from workshops by top-notch genealogical lecturers to the latest innovations in technology that aid in researching, organizing and preserving your family history. There were several hundred classes to attend and an expo hall filled with everything from books to software to genealogical education and online storage. The International Institute for Genealogical Studies even had a booth there. I stopped by and had a wonderful conversation with…

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We Have a Winner!: APG PMC

We have a winner! You may recall that we had one registration to the Association of Professional Genealogist’s  Professional Management Conference to give away to one lucky student. That lucky student is Lynn Funk. Lynn was understandably excited, “The reason I wanted to attend was that I looked at the amazing line-up of speakers and topics being presented and knew there were things that I could learn from them that would make me a better genealogist.  For instance, Thomas Jones has several workshops including You’ve Got Options: Many Ways to Cite Right.  I know that citing sources is a weakness for me and I look forward to hearing what Dr. Jones has to say about this so that I can turn this weakness into a strength.” Lynn is also looking forward to hearing  Billie Stone Fogarty and National Institute course author James Beidler. ” This was a great opportunity for Lynn whose goal is to become a professional genealogist. She says, “I try to take every opportunity that is presented to me to learn more about genealogy and family history.” About herself, Lynn says, “I have been researching family history for over 35 years, off and on–more on now that my children are grown!  Right now I am involved in several projects: 1) Researching my Smith line with a cousin who “found” me through AncestryDNA.  We have never met in person or talked on the phone– in fact up until a few months ago, I didn’t even know she existed.  But we are…

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